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Friends and recent DePaul graduates Daniel Parra (LAS ’08) and Kolin Jordan (LAS ’05) have joined with five other partners to establish a new independent publishing collective to “identify and publish works defined as unorthodox, progressive, experimental, irreverent, intellectually risky and cult-classics,” according to co-founder Parra. “[We look for] works that the conventional giant publishers would never venture to publish.”

Kolin Jordan (LAS ’05)

Called 7Vientos, the new collective released its first book in December 2011. Llegaron los hippies / And the Hippies Came was originally published in Spanish by Manuel Abreu Adorno in 1978. The newly published version is a “flip” book—the text starts in Spanish, but readers can flip the book over in the middle and read the story in English. It is the first time Adorno’s cult-classic will be released in English.

Jordan and Parra began the independent publishing company in Chicago in 2010 with five other members of various backgrounds and nationalities. The members describe themselves as sharing a love for literature and a passion for alternative outlets as creative options for those seeking to break from the status quo.

“We are really happy to see that all the hard work and many hours of dedication we have invested into publishing our first book is now paying off,” said Jordan. “Even now, still riding the wave of success of the first, we’re looking forward to our next book.”

This spring, 7Vientos plans to publish its second book, Saturnario (Saturnalia) by Rey Emmanuel Andujar.